Despotism Quotes - Page 5

• Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Struggle, Succeed, Revolution

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.204

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• And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Clouds, Light

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private : Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State”, p.218

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• I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.

  Lord Byron

  Government, People, Feelings

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.3005, Delphi Classics

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• The whole conception of a God is a conception derived from the ancient oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Wish, Age

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.34, Routledge

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• [the framers of the Constitution] intended our government should be a republic, which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism.

  Fisher Ames

  Government, Historical, Democracy

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• The struggle for freedom is ultimately not resistance to autocrats or oligarchs but resistance to the despotism of public opinion.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Struggle, Public Opinion, Resistance

  Ludwig von Mises (1985). “Theory and History”, p.66, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• Inertia! Our ruling class knows one law; no change. Despotism! They know one rule; force. Maldistribution! They know one desire; to hold what is theirs.

  Isaac Asimov

  Law, Class, Desire

  Isaac Asimov (1986). “Foundation Trilogy”, Del Rey

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• Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism.

  Fisher Ames

  Long, Historical, Democracy

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• [F]or avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy . . . the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people. I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments. [T]herefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God.

  Gouverneur Morris

  Believe, Men, People

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• Honor is unknown in despotic states.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Honor, States

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• [Restraints on the press] in all ages, have debauched morals, depressed liberty, shackled religion, supported despotism, and deluged the scaffold with blood.

  James Madison

  Blood, Age, Liberty

  James Madison (1865). “Letters and other writings of James Madison”, p.512

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• There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have relinquished belief only with regret. To this I reply: who wishes that there was a permanent, unalterable celestial despotism that subjected us to continual surveillance and could convict us of thought-crime, and who regarded us as its private property even after we died? How happy we ought to be, at the reflection that there exists not a shred of respectable evidence to support such a horrible hypothesis.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Atheist, Regret, Reflection

  Christopher Hitchens (2007). “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever”, p.17, Hachette UK

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• Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Freedom, Knowledge, Men

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• Private property in the instruments of production is an institutional device both for dispersing power and for securing effective organization of production. The only simple property system is that of a slave society with a single slave owner - which, significantly, is the limiting case of despotism and of monopoly. Departure from such a system is a fair measure of human progress.

  Henry Calvert Simons

  Simple, Organization, Slave Owners

  Henry Calvert Simons (1948). “Economic Policy for a Free Society”

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• Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.... An attempt to scrutinize men's thoughts and punish their opinions is of all kinds of despotism the most odious: yet this is peculiarly character of a period of revolution.... There is no period more at war with the existence of liberty.

  William Godwin

  War, Character, Men

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• The despotism of custom is on the wane. We are not content to know that things are; we ask whether they ought to be.

  John Stuart Mill

  Customs, Ought, Knows

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• Despotism may be able to do without religion, but democracy cannot.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Christian, Religious, Democracy

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• The 'survival of the fittest' is beneficently inevitable; the capitalist is powerless against labor, unless the State . . . steps in, and helps him catch and fleece his victims. The old plea of despotism, that liberty is unsafe, reappears now in the mistaken notion that competition is hostile to labor.

  Ezra Heywood

  Competition, Survival, Liberty

  Ezra Hervey Heywood (1985). “The Collected Works of Ezra H. Heywood”

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• In comparison to the French Revolution, the American Revolution has come to seem a parochial and rather dull event. This, despitethe fact that the American Revolution was successful--realizing the purposes of the revolutionaries and establishing a durable political regime--while the French Revolution was a resounding failure, devouring its own children and leading to an imperial despotism, followed by an eventual restoration of the monarchy.

  Irving Kristol

  Children, Successful, Political

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• All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. It has been found out. I must say that it was high time, for all authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mean, Exercise, Government

  "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

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• The end of despots is always odd?exhilarating to those who suffered their tyrannies, and to those who hold despotism in contempt, and anti-climatic at the same time, the discovery that these tyrants were petty, frightened men after all.

  Fouad Ajami

  Spring, Men, Discovery

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• Resolved ... that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism - free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Rights, Safety

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• Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many.

  Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

  Tyrants, Democracy, Subjects

  Marguerite Countess of Blessington, Marguerite GARDINER (Countess of Blessington.) (1839). “Desultory Thoughts and Reflections”, p.39

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• When Michelle and I decided that I would run for President, it was because of a shared belief in the power of community and connection, a commitment to the idea that we are our brothers' keepers.

  Barack Obama

  Running, Brother, Commitment

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• It is always observable that the physical and the exact sciences are the last to suffer under despotisms.

  Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

  Suffering, Lasts, Physical Science

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